


Physical Contact

by tinynerdlet



Series: ST: TNG Episode Based Drabbles [1]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Holding Hands, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-08-14 00:49:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7992472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinynerdlet/pseuds/tinynerdlet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takes place after the events of episodes 4.24 and 4.25 of <em>Star Trek: The Next Generation</em>.</p><p>After his run-in with the Romulans -- a run in that he doesn't even remember -- Geordi keeps having nightmares about killing crew mates. Although most of the dreams focus around one particular crew mate, the latest dream makes him believe he's responsible for Data's destruction. In a fit of fear, he calls Data on the communicator just to hear his voice. The small gesture opens a conversation that Geordi didn't even know he wanted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Physical Contact

**Author's Note:**

> [See Story On Tumblr](http://spoopynerdlet.tumblr.com/post/150109141653/star-trek-tng-drabble-adventures-episode-424)

O’Brien was sitting at a table talking with two other people from Engineering. What they were talking about, Geordi couldn’t tell. It didn’t matter. It didn’t change what he wanted – no, needed – to do.

Geordi eased up the Ten Forward stairs, his thumb rolling against his phaser. As he reached the platform, he stopped. His mind began to skim over the details of his next move. He’d use the phaser on O’Brien and knock him unconscious. Then, as the rest of the crew faded against the background of the ship, he’d pull the man to his quarters and… and–

“Geordi–”

The light voice came from behind him. Geordi jerked around and fired the phaser. A red beam shot only a few inches before it tore through a yellow uniform and shattered the chest below. Metal screamed. People didn’t. They faded, as they always had, just as the uniform clad figure landed with a thunderous clap on the floor of Ten Forward. Geordi stood motionless as yellow eyes scanned him. The head tilted. The lips flapped. Breath was taken in.

“Geordi… _why_ –”

Geordi woke in the dark. His heart pattered against his ribs as his lungs flailed in an attempt to live, to regulate, to calm. His mind didn’t want calm. With trembling fingers, Geordi reached for his bedside table. His fingertips brushed against it. The edge of his pinkie made contact with his communicator. He jerked his hand towards it and pressed it down. The familiar connecting clicks sounded.

“La Forge to Data, come in.”

His shaking voice left out the “please” that hung in his throat. For a brief moment, in the silence of his quarters, Geordi saw the splintered body of his friend lying in Ten Forward, his wide yellow eyes, and the question quivering against his lips. But the image jerked away when a voice chimed from the comm.

“How can I help you, Geordi?”

Geordi sighed. It almost felt like a gasp. He paused for a moment as his mind finally began to settle.

“It’s… it’s nothing.”

“Are you certain? It is unusual for you to call me at this hour.”

“I know, I just–”

Geordi hesitated. He could have lied. He even thought to. Data wouldn’t worry if Geordi told him everything was fine. But this wasn’t just anyone on the ship. He was closest to Data. If he couldn’t tell Data the truth, then who could he tell?

“I… I had a nightmare.”

“Do you wish to discuss it?”

Did he? Not really. But he needed to. He needed to get the nightmares out of his system. Talking about it could help. And he knew that’s what Counselor Troi would suggest.

“If you don’t mind,” Geordi said.

“I do not. I will be at your quarters shortly.”

Geordi sat on his bed for a moment longer before shifting his hand across the bedside table. His fingers slipped across the surface and then bumped into his visor. He lifted the metal off the table, flipped it, and slowly locked the visor over his eyes. Vision came to him in busy hues that clashed dimly together. He asked the computer to raise the lights in the room before he climbed out of bed. The contrast in light helped give items form, not that it mattered. There wasn’t much that he could run into.

He walked into the living room and sat on the couch. After a moment, he leaned forward in order to rest his elbows on his knees. He was tempted to take off his visor again – the dull pain it brought worsened some distant ache he felt – but there was some comfort in it’s familiarity. A comfort, too, in the ring of the door chime.

“Come in.”

The door hissed open. Data stepped inside. He looked normal – his face as stoic, his uniform clean, his frame perfect. Geordi could have run diagnostics on him for further proof, but it wasn’t necessary. Data was as healthy as an android could be.

“I’m sorry I called you this late,” Geordi said.

“You do not need to apologize.”

Of course he didn’t. Geordi stared at Data for a moment as if examining him again before he averted his eyes to his own hands. He pressed them together, clenched his fingers, then released them in a slow, near calculated way. His fingers felt sweaty.

“I’ve been having these dreams since I got back from the conference,” Geordi said, “First they start like normal. I’m going about my daily routine and then I have this… urge. Like someone’s telling me to do something and I have to do it. And every time I have this urge, I go to Ten Forward, pick a target, and kill them. Most of the time it’s Lieutenant O’Brien. It was supposed to be Lieutenant O’Brien this time too but… you talked to me and I… I killed you instead.”

Geordi looked up at Data. The android hadn’t changed his posture, his facial expression, nothing. He was just as stoic and just as Data-like as he’d always been. Geordi looked at his hands again.

“The dream was so vivid… I had to call to see if you were still alive.”

There was a pause.

“You have caused me no harm, Geordi.”

“I know.”

“Then why did you wish to talk about this dream if you knew it was not real?”

Geordi paused, sighed, looked up, looked back at his hands, pressed them together firmly, and took in a slow breath.

“Imagine that you had this… vision that seemed so real that you think you could reach out and touch it. Like… Engineering. You could see the panels, hear the sounds, see the people. Then imagine that you… witness a death. My death. You see my blood, my body, and you swear that it’s real. Everything in you says that it’s real. Then the vision ends and you’re in a different place but that image is still there. Wouldn’t you want to see if I was still alive?”

Silence. Geordi looked up. Data’s head shifted once, twice, but his eyes stayed focused on him. Then Geordi watched Data walk across the room and sit on the footrest in front of him. There was a brief pause, another shift of Data’s head, and then the android’s hands reached out and encircled Geordi’s. They were cold. Yet, somehow, the calculated touch eased Geordi’s heart. He looked down at their hands, at the conflicting hues in the room light, before glancing again at Data’s face.

“What are you doing?” Geordi asked.

“I believed that physical contact would allow you to fully understand that I am alive. Is it not helpful? I can discontinue–”

“No!” Geordi’s voice came out far stronger than he meant it. He cleared his throat and looked down at their hands. “No, it’s… this is fine. Just unexpected, that’s all.”

“I believe your nightmares could also be considered an unexpected phenomenon.”

A smile touched Geordi’s lips. It was small, delicate. It drifted away as quickly as it came.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Silence settled between them again. Geordi laced his own fingers together. It widened Data’s hands, which seemed to compensate for his movements. Geordi then pushed his right thumb out and brushed it along the edge of Data’s right pointer finger. He’d worked with and on Data for years. He knew the circuits well enough to fix him. Yet, still, Geordi was surprised by Data’s hands. They were cold, sure, but they were also soft. The synthetic skin that lay over his frame felt almost human. He wondered if lacing his fingers with Data’s would offer a similar sensation.

“Is this the way in which you normally respond to someone holding your hands in this manner?” Data asked.

“No one’s ever held my hands like this before,” Geordi said. He looked up. Data’s eyes were on him, examining him. “Why do you ask?”

“Over the past two months I have taken time to study many forms of human intimacy. My original intent for this contact was to offer you support as a friend. Your reaction to this contact, however, suggests that your feelings extend beyond that of friendship. I asked the question in an attempt to better understand your feelings towards me so I could respond properly.”

Geordi felt heat rise against his neck and engulf his ears. Beyond friendship? No. It couldn’t be. He and Data were best friends. Had been for years. Of course there were strong feelings present. Sure, he wanted to spend more time with Data than usual, but that was because of he left the ship for a week. Right? Yes – no. No, that wasn’t right. Because all through his Risa trip, the one that Counselor Troi was certain never happened, he thought of Data. Even when he was with that girl, Data was there, settled in the back of his mind. If he was actually held hostage by Romulans, his thoughts of Data could have been unconscious cries for help. It was beyond that, though. There was something from Data he wanted. Something that he tried to find in women. Something that bubbled to the surface in that moment and enraptured his heart. After all the months of near touches, of soft smiles, of small disappointments when Data left, Geordi finally understood.

He was falling in love with Data.

“I…”

The sentence died before he even finished the first word.

“Did my question make you uncomfortable?”

“No… I mean yes, but… not in a bad way.”

“I do not understand.”

Geordi stared at their hands as he tried to gather his thoughts. The sudden panic settled to a low murmur.

“To be honest with you, Data, I didn’t realize how I felt until you asked that.” He paused. “I guess I’ve been in denial for a while now about… about you. I… I guess I do like you more than friends should like each other. Best friends, even.”

“Do you wish to make our relationship more intimate?”

Geordi nearly choked on air. His head snapped up, his eyes meeting Data’s.

“Wh-what?!”

“If you wish to make our relationship more intimate, I would be willing to input programs designed specifically for you.”

“Programs–?”

“I will learn more about your likes and habits and encode them into more romantic programs that will allow me to understand your wants and desires throughout–”

“Whoa, whoa, Data, slow down,” Geordi said. Data fell silent. “What about what you want?”

Data blinked, tilted his head and answered, “I am an android. I am not capable–”

“Of human emotion, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it before. But do you even want that kind of relationship with me? Surely there’s someone else on the ship you’d rather be… romantic with.”

Data’s eyes jerked away for a moment. Then they returned, no more or less emotional than before.

“You are the one person aboard the _Enterprise_  that I think about the most. Of everyone I come into contact with, you would be the easiest to make programs for.”

“I don’t care about the programs, Data, I care about you.” Geordi paused. “I don’t want you to go through with something that you don’t actually want.”

“If I did not want to attempt a romantic relationship with you, I would not have suggested it.”

Geordi blinked. He wasn’t sure what he expected Data to say, but that definitely wasn’t it. Still, the answer was as welcome as Data’s hands. Truthful, gentle, kind. And as the answer settled with him, Geordi smiled. This one stayed.

“Okay, then I guess we can give it a shot.”

Data nodded.

“I will begin creating romantic programs for you immediately.”

“What does that entail exactly?”

“We would begin in the early steps of relationships. There are many books on the matter but many of them state that several dates and romantic gestures are needed in order to build a stronger foundation for–”

“You know what,” Geordi said, “Why don’t we just… feel it out for ourselves.”

“How would you suggest we start, then?”

Geordi stared at him, at the face he grew to love. Then he eased forward, closed his eyes, and pressed his lips against Data’s. They were soft, just like his hands.


End file.
